Burnley and Padiham’s MP Antony Higginbotham this week questioned the CEO of the Post Office. The company boss was brought into Parliament by the Business and Trade Committee to be quizzed on the process for delivering fair and timely compensation to victims of the Horizon scandal, which occurred between 1999 and 2015.
During the committee Post Office CEO Nick Read and Burnley’s MP had a drawn-out exchange over whether there was a cover-up at the time.
Speaking on this point Mr Higginbotham said:
I'm not asking for a date, but pre-2015, was there any mention of possible issues with Horizon?
Confirming he has seen documents stating that, Antony continued
So in 2015, when one of your predecessors, Paula Vennells, told this committee that prosecutions were sound. Was parliament misled?
Responding Mr Read said:
I don't know if I can specifically comment on that. I think what's clearly occurred in the statements that has been provided to the inquiry…. is that individuals who have been prosecuted and those individuals that go all the way back have been prosecuted on the basis of information that may be erroneous. Yes, that is, I think, something that we've heard in the room.
As Mr Read was speaking “You’re under Parliamentary privilege – tell the truth” was heard.
Antony then continued:
From the information you've seen, would you have said to these committees that all prosecutions were sound in 2015, having seen what you've now seen?
Responding Mr Read said:
I don't think I can give you a straight answer on that because it's so much more context I think that's required. As I say, we've been very, very, very clear that someone is going to get to the bottom of these details and that is what we think is the right thing to do. And I don't think it's my place to prejudge that.
As shown on the ITV hit programme, the Horizon IT scandal saw more than 700 sub-postmasters and mistresses convicted after faulty Fujitsu software made it appear as though money was missing from their branches.
Last week the Prime Minister confirmed that all victims of the IT scandal will have their convictions squashed fast-tracked legislation which is being supported by Burnley’s MP.
Number 10 also confirmed that sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses would be eligible for a £75,000 upfront payment with the new law, but acknowledged that would not be sufficient for everyone.
Commenting after the committee Antony said:
I don’t think it’s unreasonable for the current CEO to take more of a hands-on approach to this issue. Of course, this scandal happened before I had the privilege of representing Burnley and Padiham in Parliament. And before Mr Read was CEO himself.
But that doesn’t make it any less important for us to fully understood what took place, and why it took place.
What has come out in all of this is that the Post Office has some very serious questions to answer. And that’s exactly why I put the questions that I did on behalf of the postmasters in Burnley and Padiham. Because it’s not good enough for this to be swept under the carpet. I’ll 100% be supporting the financial compensation schemes and crucially the fast-tracked legislation which will squash these convictions which saw innocent people’s lives overturned due to defective IT equipment.
